Counterculture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Counterculture - Essay Example The counter-culture is the cultural counterpart of of political opposition. This is a new sociological term coined by Theodore Roszak, an American social thinker, whose writings are frequently linked with the "alternative or " "new age" movements. It is Roszak who narrated and explained the European and North American counterculture of the 1960s in his book The Making of a Counter Culture (1969). However, mentions about the term also exist in earlier times, as Stein Rokkan in his models in political science, used the expression to depict the fight of the marginal against the authoritative mainstream central state-and nation-building and that kind of cultural homogenization in 1967 (Alford et al, 1974). Loosely speaking, countercultural trends are prsent in many societies, but what Roszak et al here means is a more important and noticeable trend, reaching a significant target for a certain span of time, a movement expressing the culture, hopes and dreams of a paricular group of people during an epoch - a social expression of zeitgeist, the typical spirit of a historical epoch in its entirety (Zeit contains the sense of "era"), the idea is derived from the belief that the time has a objective meaning and is instilled with content In this sense Countercultural ambiances in 19th century Europe took in the Romantic, Bohemian and the Dandy movements (Dictionary of the History, lib.virginia.edu ). Another movement in the 1950's, Beat generation/Beatniks also had traces of counter culture in it, followed in the 1960s by the hippies. The term 'counterculture' became important in the news media as it referred to the social revolution swaying North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia a nd New Zealand during the 1960s and early 1970s (Roszak, 1969). In modern history of the western world (and for that matter, the world in its entireity) countreculture is often placed synonymouly with the turbulent decades of the 1960os and 1970's that was, accoding to Roszak, a social and political response to the pretense of the mainstream worldly culture from which it rose. In the The Making of a Counter Culture he handles rather truthfully the tensions, problems and incongruities connected with the ascent of the counterculture and the inherent problems it had with it to ultimately heralding for the worldly normal culture. History, no doubt, shows that the philosophy of the 1960s was squashed by the crushing attack of the system and the political and social values of the counterculture finally joined into the realm of private philosophies of hippies as absorbed into the mainstream. Yet while earlier studies on the sixties focus mainly on the "hippie" era, or on the sex, the drugs, and the music, Roszak focuses mostly on the political and soci al issues of the time including everything from the Vietnam War to how the effect of counter culture on lifestyles of an average American family. He assesses thoroughly the bond between the late 1960's counterculture to avant-garde intellectual ideas of the same age, discussing those of Herbert Marcuse and Norman Brown, among others, in great detail to show clearly how their ideas affected the intellectual and political movements on college campuses in both America and Europe with a remarkable insight especially considering that he wrote The Making of a Counter Culture almost on the same time while the events were still expanding. The counter culture of the 1960's and the 1970's, Roszak shows us, was

INNOVATION (Strategic alliances) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

INNOVATION (Strategic alliances) - Essay Example In business, innovation can be defined as the exploitation of new ideas that find acceptance in the market. These ideas, most often, are incorporated into new processes, technology, best practices and designs (Sarkar 2007, p.2). Some of these ideas may end up causing a complete overhaul to an organization’s operation and range of products. Most of the innovated products are based on the ideas of others or a modification of existing products. In summary, innovation process encompasses; getting a new idea or modifying an old one, reorganization of existing opportunities or those that can be promoted, choice of best alternatives and application of the process and the idea (Sarkar 2007, p.2). Innovation may be as a result of the need to meet the needs of consumers or improve the way of doing things. Companies that fail to embrace innovation have often found themselves left behind by their competitors, leading to the loss of their market niche. The focus on the theories of innovation varies because there are different views on the process of innovation and the factors that lead to the development of innovation. The theories may focus on; (a) technological development, R&D and technical research functions in a company, (b) the individual who creates and develops the new elements, and (c) issues of innovation in the market place (Sundo 1998, p.4). It involves the exchange of technology between two or more companies. Strategic alliances are characterized by risk sharing and mutual commitment in respect to the attainment of specified economic and technological goals and objectives. These alliances tend to arise from the willingness and desire of one firm to assist the other in overall development of the firm business and/or exploitation of certain technological assets portfolio. An example is when the firms in the alliance want to (a) form a joint venture in research and distribution, or (b) enter a joint development agreement, or (c) enter

The Challenges Faced By Environmental Management Systems Business Essay

The Challenges Faced By Environmental Management Systems Business Essay This research is about the Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) and does the packaging companies adopted (ISO 14001) because as we know packaging industry is one of the industry that generate massive amount of waste. Thus this waste must be managed carefully to reduce the impact to the environment. Further investigation will be carry out into the role that the packaging companies played towards the current environmental issues. Basically an Environmental Management System is a management system that can helps an organization to manage its environmental impacts and also a way which can minimize such impacts effectively in the long run. The packaging industry is an industry that responsible to enclosing or protecting certain products for distribution, longer duration of storage and also for marketing purposes to attract consumers. The environmental issue has been always the world agenda since early of 1992 when a group of international organisations for examples the United Nations Conference in Environmental and Development, World Health Organization and also the Non- Governmental Organization setting standards to maintain sustainable environment. The term sustainable environment was used by the well known Brundtland Commission which is now widely been quoted as development that meets the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) is one of the standards in the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) family tree and the British Standard BS 7750 was the first standard to be created at that time. According to Krut and Gleckman (1998): This international association of national standard- setting bodies was set up to facilitate international commerce by standardizing technical specifications. It works closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). In many areas, from ATM cards to telecommunication bandwidths to plumping supplies, business and the public experience significant advantages from ISO and IEC activity. (Kurt and Gleckman, 1998, pp.2). Although the issues of environmental being a great debate from different group of people especially the environmentalist but there is still lack of awareness among the public itself. This is also due to the lack of commitment from the local government to convey this important message to the public. This topic was chosen because the researcher took the subject of Environmental Issues in Business before and found that in order to sustain in a business first we have to understand well about what is the Sustainable Environment and how does it affect a business in the long run. Research Aims Objectives The aim of this research is to examine the Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) practices in packaging companies located in North East of England. This followed by 3 objectives to fit with the aim above and there are: to identify the reasons of the adoption of the Environmental Management System, to identify the problems companies faced when getting certified to ISO 14001, and lastly to examine the companys performance before and after adopting the Environmental Management System. Literature Review In this section will discuss about the previous research has been done to this topic and also demonstrate to the reader how well does the researcher knows about this particular topic of Environmental Management System (ISO 14001). Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2007, p.57) commented that reviewing the literature critically will provide the foundation on which your research is built and also the main purpose is to help the researcher to develop a good understanding and insight into relevant previous research and the trend that have emerged. There are plenty of books, journals and articles discussing about the environmental issues, how does the industrial sector can minimize their waste by adopting the Environmental Management System and also why businesses needs to play an important role towards the sustainability of the environment. No doubt all human being living in this world today does created much of their own waste (motor cars and the consumptions of CFCs in air conditioners or refrigerators) to the environment itself but the waste and pollutions created from the industrial sector are much more severe. According to Whitelaw (1997): If we look back to the to the Industrial Revolution, we might see this as the period when the inventiveness and innovation of human beings, and the resultant mechanization of manufacturing processes began to have negative impacts upon the environment. Prior to this period, any negative environmental impacts tended to be localized for example, forest were cut down without any future regard. (Whitelaw, 1997, pp. 2). Another author does agree with the same argument above and stated that: Businesses are the core of the environmental debate and are central both to the pollution problem and to the solutionthe activities of industry provide employment, and investments drive economic growth. However, in doing so, be it because of the resources that they consumer, the processes they apply or the products that they manufacture, business activities are a major contributor to environmental destruction. (Welford, 1994, pp. 3). One of the solutions for businesses to minimize their wastage is to implement the Environmental Management System (EMS) and getting certification of ISO 14001. Jorgensen (2000) defined the EMS: An EMS is part of the enterprises overall management system. It includes the organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for implementing and maintaining environmental management. It includes those aspects of management that plan, develop, implement, achieve, review, maintain and improve the enterprises environmental policy, objectives and targets. (Jorgensen, 2000, pp.75). Implementing the EMS does not only helps businesses to reduce their wastage but also will improve the environmental performance and this can lead to a better corporate image of the businesses itself. According to Jorgensen (2000): EMS offers a structured and systematic method to incorporate environmental care in all aspects of business. The aim is not only to comply with environmental regulations and minimize the (financial) risks of liabilities and costs but to improve the environmental performance continuously and through this improve corporate image and gain competitive advantage. (Jorgensen, 2000, pp. 75). There are many large organizations for example BT Group in UK which takes the environmental management very seriously into their business. According to BT Group: In 1990 the BT Board made a commitment to optimise environmental management across the company. Since then, we have made real strides towards our goal of world class environmental management. Climate change is higher than ever on the agenda for government and business. BTs response to this is a new plan which takes some ambitious steps to cut our emissions of carbon dioxide. Having already reduced our carbon footprint by 58% in the UK, we have now set a target to achieve an 80% reduction in our carbon intensity worldwide by 2020. BT consumes 0.7% of the UKs entire electricity, so we think we can make an important difference. We have pledged to reduce the amount of carbon we emit as a business and help others to do the same. We are encouraging our suppliers, customers and employees to take action. We also believe that communications technology can be harnessed to help address climate change. (http://www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/Environmentandclimatechange/Environmentandclimatec hange.htm, no date). Further discussion of the objectives and more detailed literature review will be covered in the later part of this research project. Methodology Research Approach Strategy The research approach that will be use to apply in this topic is the Inductive Approach. Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2007, p. 118) commented that the purpose (Inductive Approach) here would be to get a feel of what was going on, so as to understand better the nature of the problem. This approach is best to be combining with the qualitative data and is being suggested to use different kind of methods to collect the data in order to get different point of view. (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007, p.119). Since the environmental issues can be categorized under the real life context, the Case Study Strategy is more suitable to use in this research as the case study strategy is based on a real life context investigation. Types of information required Information that is required for this research is to find out how the environmental issues affect the business sector especially the packaging companies in the north east of England (regulations that needs to be follow, government, investor and also the public pressure), did the business owners take any initiative to protect the environment, some useful data from the Environment Agency in UK, why those companies choose to adopt the EMS or get certified for ISO 14001 (corporate image, attract more investors and consumers, able to help the companies in certain way or just for the seek for adopting it) and lastly to compare the performance before and after adopting the EMS and also to create awareness to the companies that the importance of sustainable environment/business. Data collection The main data collection for this research project will be from conducting an interview with around 8 packaging companies that are located in the North East of England. The length of each interview will be approximately 15-25 minutes. Voice recording, video recording and notes taking will be acquire to form a transcript at the later part for this research. Semi- structured interviews is the type of interview to be use in this research as questions from interview can be omit or vary according to the background of the company and also the background of the interviewee. Secondary Data The secondary data collection is also one of the ways to collect data for the research project. Secondary data consists of 3 types and there are Documentary Secondary Data, Multiple Source- Secondary Data and the Survey Secondary Data. In order to meet the objectives in this research project, reports and database from the potential companies are very valuable and in addition the journals, articles, newspaper and also books publication could also be sources for this research. Documentary Secondary Data and the Multiple Source- Secondary Data will be used in the research. Methods/Strategy linked to project objectives

Technology And The Stock Market Essay -- essays research papers

The purpose of this research paper is to prove that technology has been good for the stock market. Thanks to technology, there are now more traders than ever because of the ease of trading online with firms such as Auditrade and Ameritrade. There are also more stocks that are doing well because they are in the technology field. The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ have both benefitted from the recent technological movement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The NYSE says they â€Å"are dedicated to maintaining the most efficient and technologically advanced marketplace in the world.† The key to that leadership has been the state-of-the-art technology and systems development. Technology serves to support and enhance the human judgement at point-of-sale.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  NASDAQ, the world’s first fully electronic stock market, started trading on February 8th, 1971. Today, it is the fastest growing stock market in the United States. It alo ranks second among the world’s securities in terms of dollar value. By constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of investors and public companies, NASDAQ has achieved more than almost any other market, in a shorter period of time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Technology has also helped investors buy stocks in other markets. Markets used to open at standard local times. This would cause an American trader to sleep through the majority of a Japanese trading day. With more online and afterhours trading, investors have more access to markets so that American traders can still trade Japanese stocks. This is also helped by an expansion of most market times. Afterhours trading is available from most online trading firms.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For investing specialists, technology provides operational capability for handling more stocks and greatly increased volumes of trading. Specialists can follow additional sources of market information, and multiple trading and post-trade functions, all on â€Å"one screen† at work or at home. They are also given interfaces to â€Å"upstairs† risk-management systems. They also have flexiblity to rearrange their physical workspaces, terminals and functional activities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Floor brokers are helped with supports for an industry-wide effort to compare buy/sell contracts for accuracy shortly after the trade. They are also given flexibility in establishing w... ...e Hand-Held is a mobile, hand-held device that enables brokers to recieve orders, disseminate reports, and send market â€Å"looks† in both data and image format, from anywhere on the trading floor.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Intermarket Trading System is a display that was installed in 1978 linking all major U.S. exchanges. ITS allows NYSE and NASDAQ specialists and brokers to compare the price of a security traded on multiple exchanges in order to get the best price for the investor.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  These are the machines that have helped greatly increase the buying and selling of stocks over the past few years. There are great advantages to trading today over the situation that past traders had. The biggest beneficiaries of this new technology are investors themselves. They have all day to trade instead of trading only during market hours, they have more stocks to choose from, and the markets are very high so people are making a lot of money. In conclusion, I have discovered that the research I have done on this project has revealed what I originally thought to be true. That is that the stock market has greatly benefitted from the recent advances in technologies.

All Men Came from the Seed of Adam

The Book of Genesis in the Old Testament Chapter 1 and 2 is an account of creation of man and the universe and Chapter 3 accounted on how the woman committed disobedience, the reason why with her husband they were thrown out from the Garden of Eden. And it was the beginning of knowledge between good and evil, death, and hardship that is brought by toil. Toil in which civilization has also began. The next Chapters narrate the growth of the family of Adam from Cain to the murder of his brother Abel, and from Noah to Moses until the death of Joseph in Egypt.These are just simply myths to unbelievers but some historical accounts have been proven by archeologists, scholars, and the order of creation itself. The Book which is authored by the Maker of heaven and earth is written in Hebrew, Greek Septuagint, Latin Vulgate, and the King James Version. Authentication of the Bible is being disputed by many scholars. In the Greek and Latin Versions, the Book contains the apocryphal writings whic h the King James Bible has disregarded (Marlowe).The Bible in fact, authenticates the history of man and the order of the universe explains that someone had caused it to happen. However, the Old Testament speaks of two accounts of the same situation; one version is kept sacred by older people we call Yahwist version and the other is of earlier version which can create possibilities of different interpretation. The best way to authenticate a work is to ask the author but in the case of the Holy Scripture, the one whom the Holy Books belong is of the highest authority and that’s what makes it difficult for anyone to prove.Besides, the mystery of God and creation is so great for man to grasp. The Words of God are slowly revealed from one generation to another until the â€Å"Adventus†, the coming of Christ, his birth, salvific mission and redemption. And the â€Å"Parousia† which is the awaited second coming of Christ, the coming of the new heaven and the new earth which can be read in the book of Revelations. However, the old people defend its sacredness and authenticity by the universality of the teachings found in the book.The Holy Book was backed up by Sacred Tradition that narrates the life and times of the prominent names in the Bible during that specific period, it further explains some of the old customs and traditions that was apparent in their times which explains some words that may have already changed. Latin is a helpful tool in finding meanings since it is a dead language; it enables the scholars to determine what a specific word truly means because the word in the Latin language no longer changes its meanings for example the word brethren which during the time of Jesus is interpreted as cousins and not necessarily as siblings.Chapter 1 Summarizes creation and narrates very briefly that man was created on the 6th day. 26 God said, â€Å"Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of t he fish of the sea, of heaven, †¦.. † 27 God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them, saying to them, â€Å"Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that move on earth. â€Å"God in the 28th verse explicitly told that man inherited the earth and heaven, the race of Adam inherits creation that made him in His image and likeness. However, verse 26 speaks in plural form (â€Å"Let us make man in our own image) but verse 27 spoke in the singular form â€Å"man in the image of himself†. Those words are a magnificent revelation on the mystery of the one triune God. And the verses explain that it is both. When God speaks in the verses He always says heaven and earth, and pondering upon those words someone will realize that Eden before the fall of man is heaven and earth at the same time whi le the portal of heaven is named a vault.In fact, reflecting on the verses reveal truths by realizing that God do not and never contradicts Him self. And by the word â€Å"Our† it further explain that God is the same as yesterday, today, and tomorrow the only one that never changes which separates Him from the created and being the Creator, the ultimate cause of all things. In saying â€Å"Ours†, it reveals the Second and the Third Persons of the Trinity. Specifically, the Creator of heaven and earth call the first man Adam and from his rib God created the woman as quoted in the Old Testament Chapter 2:7 Yahweh God shaped man from the soil of the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being. 22 Yahweh God fashioned the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. Furthermore, in Chapter 3 very specific that man came one singular parent 20 The man named his wife â€Å"Eve† because she was the mothe r of all those who live. Again the verses signify that all mankind born came from the one set of parent that is Adam and Eve coming from the ancestral home which is called Eden being created by a Supreme Being.In the following Chapters of Genesis, the book narrates succession of offspring’s from one sets of parent from the descendant of Adam. It narrated how verse 28 of Chapter 1 came to be. God asked man to co-create with Him and gave them long life of about nine hundred years in order to procreate. Probably many have wandered through the earth and these were the Gentiles described in the New Testament. Cain on the other hand, being an outcast may have wandered too and met also another wandering sister and they were able to form the next generation.Chapter 4 and 5 named the man Adam, and the next verses gave man his genealogy. Chapter 6 continued that the earth is already populated and God decided to shorten man’s life-span to a hundred and twenty years. Verse two als o mentioned that â€Å"2 the sons of God, looking at the women, saw how beautiful they were and married as many of them as they chose. The revelation in the Old Testament clarifies that the whole of humanity came from the seed of Adam and Eve and from East the direction to which God pointed out that from Eden Adam’s flock to Cain’s have wandered the earth to cultivate the land.The beginning of man in the revelation depicts a rational man and God even asked him to name the things of creation, by reading the verses it is concise that man is immediately capable of language and trade. Adam and Eve are pristinely made just perhaps similar to the best technology when it is first invented. However, a need to test a material is important that is why there has to be a tree of life of which obedience of created beings to the Maker will be manifested. Eve allured Adam and to justify her sin came into being a new Eve.God’s work after creation continued though man, and his promised to recreate the heaven and earth because of the sin of Adam and Eve was mentioned in Verse 15 â€Å"I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; it will bruise your head and you will strike its heel (God). † This verse is very much connected in the New Testament and since it is a parallel document, one way or another it shed light for logical thinking. Man history originates from one points of origin. The first man and woman are intelligent beings knowing what is good and evil.They have multiplied and may have wandered the earth when land bridges still connects the continents. No wonder there are civilization like Egypt and others which until today can be depicted by its remaining ancient architecture. Each band may have lived in different time zones of the world, and was able to adapt to its own environment. Its culture grows as the ancient people ages; imagine men living up to nine hundred years? What a vast knowledge and wealt h would one accumulates because of that long duration in time.Despite of so many relevant interpretations, the Bible is the oldest document that is ever written and really never gets outdated. It answers man’s yearning throughout history and has brought many souls to believe and search for knowledge of truths. Works Cited God, Word of. â€Å"NJB : Genesis – Chapter 3. † (1985). 17 March 2008 . Marlowe, Michael D. â€Å"The Old Testament Canon and Apocrypha. † (2007). 17 March 2008 .

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel Essay

The Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman was praised by The Economist (2006) as â€Å"the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century†¦possibly of all of it†. In 1970, he published an essay on the social responsibility of business in the New York Times Magazine. In his article, he explains in complex detail about the notion of â€Å"social responsibility† of businessmen within a corporate environment and their goal to increase profits. Indeed, at first glance, this quote seems to capture the mentality of many of the actors in the financial sector in our era. Banks and financial institutions are accused of acting unethically and only in their self-interest to increase profits along with brokers and investment bankers who are accused of primarily aiming high incentives and bonuses by selling unconscionably high-default assets. Scholars argued that corporate governance failings and lack of ethical behaviour were significant causes of the financial crisis of autumn 2008 (Skypala, 2008). This essay discusses the question whether the above statement made by famous economist Milton Friedman is still relevant in the context of business today and to what extent it is relating to the financial sector and in particular to the financial crisis of autumn 2008. In order to address this problem, it is important to discuss the fundamental view behind Friedman’s idea since it needs to be fully understood and interpreted. He stated that the social responsibility of business was to maximize profits and to create value for stockholders within the bounds of the law. Furthermore, he thought that using corporate resources for purely altruistic purposes would be socialism. Moreover, corporations had no social responsibility other than to spend its resources to increase the profits of its investors since only investors as individuals could decide to engage in social contributions. Thus, he believed that the corporate executives, who were appointed by investors to make profits on investments, could not engage in social contributions using the corporate money. As a result, they could only do so as a private individual on their own behalf. Friedman devoted â€Å"social responsibility† to violating the interest of the manager’s employers. In other words, if managers invest in â€Å"social responsible† projects, they will harm the business since these investments will result in inefficiency and lost production leading to a reduction in shareholder’s wealth. His idea and the logic behind it have proven unconvincing to many scholars (Mulligan, 1986; Feldman, 2007; Wilcke, 2004). Indeed, several arguments can be shown which offset his idea. Firstly, his theory does not allow for the possibility that profits and social responsibility can ever exist together. It is necessary to consider the constraint noted by Jensen (2002) who indicated that it is â€Å"logically impossible to maximize in more than one dimension at the same time unless the dimensions are monotone transformations of one another†. This constraint implies that profits and social performance cannot be maximized simultaneously. That is why there is a trade-off between profits and social performance. Still, it does not mean that profit maximization and social performance cannot be congruent. In reality, there are many examples which show that both can coexist. Several reasons are to be mentioned here. Nowadays, banks and financial institutions are more aware of their role towards the society since they realize that they are an integral part of it. Furthermore, they notice that they can contribute positively to the environment and society with a positive effect on their reputation, creating a higher firm value. Furthermore, since numerous scandals of firms violating morality and ethics in the late 1990s and early 2000s (e. g. WorldCom and Enron) the significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasing tremendously and included in the business culture of most of the financial institutions today. The concept of CSR means that â€Å"corporations have ethical and moral responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law† (Munstermann, 2007). So, almost every large corporation is increasingly investing to improve its performance on sustainability assets. Banks and financial institutions know that society is always enlightened when it sees that a firm is engaged in charity and donating projects. While it is true that engagement in â€Å"social responsible† projects, for example donating for orphans of the developing countries means explicitly higher expenses and hence, reducing the profit, it has a long term profit as well. Engagement in donating projects has a positive effect on the reputation of firms, thus, affecting positively the consumer behavior of customers who will buy more products of firm, thus creating profit. Friedman also never considers the very real possibility that companies engaging in â€Å"social responsible† projects gain the support from the community and polity that might, otherwise, eventually turn against them. Nowadays, almost all companies working in the financial sector are in some kind of way socially engaged. Looking at websites of famous big banks like Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, one can find headings of Corporate Social Responsibility throughout the pages. Deutsche Bank has its own report on CSR for each year which reports engagement in AIDS projects in South Africa and support of education for children in India. JP Morgan reported an annual donation amount of $110 million for organization in 33 different countries and Goldman Sachs is actively involved in environmental projects. This shows that almost 4 decades after the famous essay of Friedman, companies do not follow his sole idea anymore but are – or are forced to – act socially responsible. On the other hand, a business should try to make profit since it is inherent in its nature and by definition (except for non-profit organization). According to the Business Dictionary, a business is an â€Å"economic system in which goods and services are exchanged for one another or money. Every business requires some form of investment and a sufficient number of customers to whom its output can be sold at profit on a consistent basis. † If a company does not make profit on a consistent and long-term basis, it will face financial distress and bankruptcy. Then, employees and workers will become unemployed which will affect the society negatively. For example, all the employees of banks going bankrupt in the financial crisis like Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae and Lehman Brothers were facing hardship. Hence, it is true that businesses are to a certain extent socially responsible to make profit in order to ensure job security and to create more jobs. This helps the society and improves the economy of the society. But Friedman does not consider the fact that if companies’ sole interest would be profit making, they can harm people and the surrounding environment. What if firms poison the water by disposing chemicals in rivers and sea – disposing toxic that leads to illnesses and death of animals and human beings? Friedman also fails to argue whether profit-generating actions like selling nuclear bombs to terror organizations, or knowingly manufacturing and selling defective, health-threatening products count as social responsibility as long as the company makes profit. Evidently, in the financial sector there are not activities such as producing bombs or life-threatening drugs. Even though this sector cannot produce life-threatening products, it can create a value chain of unethical and careless activities that can damage the whole world as well. One example is the Asian financial crisis in 1997 where moral hazards were mentioned as a major cause. Moral hazards are â€Å"negligent and fraudulent insureds† (Baker, 2000). It also refers to situation that tempted otherwise good people. The problem with moral hazards in the Asian financial crisis was that Asian banks thought that they would receive implicit guarantees that they would be bailed out if they encountered financial distress. Hence, these banks and companies were much more speculative in their investments and kept investing increasingly. If the investments fail, they will not have to bear the cost since it will be picked up by the government. They were playing with people’s money and did not act in the social interest of their customers. Instead, they were only focussing on making as much profit as possible. The result is known to everybody: In 1997 the nations of East Asia experienced the worst economic crisis they have never seen before. Obviously, the latest and most discussed topic on morality in the two recent years has been the culpability of shareholders and banks along with board directors for failings that led to the financial crisis of 2008. On the one hand, the crisis can be blamed on mortgage brokers, investment bankers and banks’ executives. Skewed incentives and greed contributed too much of the crisis. For example, mortgage brokers generate sub-prime mortgages but were paid regardless of the outcome. That is why they were selling unscrupulously assets with high default risk to clueless customers in order to receive high commissions. Not to mention â€Å"Wall Street Executives† who were focusing solely on how to increase their bonuses and remuneration packages. Also, Banks who took on these mortgages were accused of shoddy risk management and unethical behaviour, since they knew from the beginning that these subprime mortgages would eventually be securitized and removed from the bank’s balance sheet. Again, the originating banks got paid up front for processing the mortgages without having to retain part of the risk. Another factor is the misleading ratings of financial instruments credit agencies that were by far from independent. Arrangers of the secured assets were allowed to manipulate the creation of secured assets by mixing good assets with high risk assets to the point of getting a triple A-rating. If they did not get this rating, the assets were withdrawn, reconfigured and resubmitted. Since agencies are owned by banks, they were subjected to give best ratings to these dangerous assets and mortgage brokers knowing the risky idea behind those assets sold them to unsuspecting investors. According to Friedman, every party involved in the actions mentioned above showed â€Å"social responsibility† since they did not care about their social responsibility to the world but only about maximizing their profits. Evidently, the aftermath of the American financial crisis has shown that the social responsibility of business is definitely not only to increase their profits. If banks, brokers and lenders, accountants, the government and important financial organization did not incorrectly assessed or even ignored the magnitude of the risks mentioned above, if managers and investment bankers were not greedy and showed herd investment behavior, it can be argued that the crisis could have been prevented. But the various parties acted immorally and socially irresponsible not caring about the social consequences of their actions. Consequently, the Asian crisis of 1997 and the global financial crisis of 2008 are two memorable examples that offset Friedman’s idea. In conclusion, this paper has shown that Friedman’s request of being socially responsible by focusing solely on increasing profits is nowadays theoretically not accepted by banks and financial institutions. In contrast, in the 21st century social responsible corresponds to the alignment of business operations with social and ethical values. It is seen as the key to beat the competitor and to ensure sustainable growth. But the latest financial crisis has shown that even though CSR is part of the business culture of the large corporations, the key players in the large corporations do not practice social responsibility in a proper manner. It seems that CSR and corporate governance are a compilation of words and rules that adds only little value to the everyday businesses. Money has made everybody blind. Everybody wanted to have a piece of the big cake leading them to lower their inhibition threshold. The â€Å"social responsibility† of businesses should not be increasing profit but focusing on what it really means in practice to encourage stewardship. As a matter of fact, banks and financial institutions first need to show social and ethical manner in order to prevent another disaster like the financial crisis of 2008. All in all, businesses need to focus on environmental and social issues in the arena of corporate responsibility since the society expects and demands responsibility of organizations. In fact, the law expects it as well. Banks and financial institutions are challenged after the aftermath of the financial crisis – they have to find a way how to act in the best interest of stakeholders, society, the government and the environment, still being able to make sustainable profit. It is now a request from the society. ? References Baker, T. (2000). Insuring Morality. Business Dictionary. Definition of business. Homepage: http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/business. html [1. 2. 2010]. Feldman, G. (2007). Putting Uncle Milton Friedman To Bed: Reexamining Milton Friedman’s Essay on the Social Responsibility of Business. Labor Studies Journal (32), 125-141. Jensen, M. C. (2002). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2002 (12), 404-437. Milton Friedman, a giant among economist. The Economist. Verfugbar unter: http://www. economist. com/business/displaystory. cfm? story_id=8313925 [28. 1. 2010]. Mulligan, T. (1986). A Critique of Milton Friedman’s Essay â€Å"The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits†. Journal of Business Ethics (5), 265-269. Munstermann, T. (2007). Corporate Social Responsibility: Gabler. Skypala, P. (2008, 17. November). Time to reward good corporate governance. Financial Times, S. 6. [28. 1. 2010]. Wilcke, R. W. (2004). An Appropriate Ethical Model for Business and a Critique of Milton Friedman’s Thesis. The Independent Review (2), 187-209. The Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman was praised by The Economist (2006) as â€Å"the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century†¦possibly of all of it†. In 1970, he published an essay on the social responsibility of business in the New York Times Magazine. In his article, he explains in complex detail about the notion of â€Å"social responsibility† of businessmen within a corporate environment and their goal to increase profits. Indeed, at first glance, this quote seems to capture the mentality of many of the actors in the financial sector in our era. Banks and financial institutions are accused of acting unethically and only in their self-interest to increase profits along with brokers and investment bankers who are accused of primarily aiming high incentives and bonuses by selling unconscionably high-default assets. Scholars argued that corporate governance failings and lack of ethical behaviour were significant causes of the financial crisis of autumn 2008 (Skypala, 2008). This essay discusses the question whether the above statement made by famous economist Milton Friedman is still relevant in the context of business today and to what extent it is relating to the financial sector and in particular to the financial crisis of autumn 2008. In order to address this problem, it is important to discuss the fundamental view behind Friedman’s idea since it needs to be fully understood and interpreted. He stated that the social responsibility of business was to maximize profits and to create value for stockholders within the bounds of the law. Furthermore, he thought that using corporate resources for purely altruistic purposes would be socialism. Moreover, corporations had no social responsibility other than to spend its resources to increase the profits of its investors since only investors as individuals could decide to engage in social contributions. Thus, he believed that the corporate executives, who were appointed by investors to make profits on investments, could not engage in social contributions using the corporate money. As a result, they could only do so as a private individual on their own behalf. Friedman devoted â€Å"social responsibility† to violating the interest of the manager’s employers. In other words, if managers invest in â€Å"social responsible† projects, they will harm the business since these investments will result in inefficiency and lost production leading to a reduction in shareholder’s wealth. His idea and the logic behind it have proven unconvincing to many scholars (Mulligan, 1986; Feldman, 2007; Wilcke, 2004). Indeed, several arguments can be shown which offset his idea. Firstly, his theory does not allow for the possibility that profits and social responsibility can ever exist together. It is necessary to consider the constraint noted by Jensen (2002) who indicated that it is â€Å"logically impossible to maximize in more than one dimension at the same time unless the dimensions are monotone transformations of one another†. This constraint implies that profits and social performance cannot be maximized simultaneously. That is why there is a trade-off between profits and social performance. Still, it does not mean that profit maximization and social performance cannot be congruent. In reality, there are many examples which show that both can coexist. Several reasons are to be mentioned here. Nowadays, banks and financial institutions are more aware of their role towards the society since they realize that they are an integral part of it. Furthermore, they notice that they can contribute positively to the environment and society with a positive effect on their reputation, creating a higher firm value. Furthermore, since numerous scandals of firms violating morality and ethics in the late 1990s and early 2000s (e. g. WorldCom and Enron) the significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasing tremendously and included in the business culture of most of the financial institutions today. The concept of CSR means that â€Å"corporations have ethical and moral responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law† (Munstermann, 2007). So, almost every large corporation is increasingly investing to improve its performance on sustainability assets. Banks and financial institutions know that society is always enlightened when it sees that a firm is engaged in charity and donating projects. While it is true that engagement in â€Å"social responsible† projects, for example donating for orphans of the developing countries means explicitly higher expenses and hence, reducing the profit, it has a long term profit as well. Engagement in donating projects has a positive effect on the reputation of firms, thus, affecting positively the consumer behavior of customers who will buy more products of firm, thus creating profit. Friedman also never considers the very real possibility that companies engaging in â€Å"social responsible† projects gain the support from the community and polity that might, otherwise, eventually turn against them. Nowadays, almost all companies working in the financial sector are in some kind of way socially engaged. Looking at websites of famous big banks like Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, one can find headings of Corporate Social Responsibility throughout the pages. Deutsche Bank has its own report on CSR for each year which reports engagement in AIDS projects in South Africa and support of education for children in India. JP Morgan reported an annual donation amount of $110 million for organization in 33 different countries and Goldman Sachs is actively involved in environmental projects. This shows that almost 4 decades after the famous essay of Friedman, companies do not follow his sole idea anymore but are – or are forced to – act socially responsible. On the other hand, a business should try to make profit since it is inherent in its nature and by definition (except for non-profit organization). According to the Business Dictionary, a business is an â€Å"economic system in which goods and services are exchanged for one another or money. Every business requires some form of investment and a sufficient number of customers to whom its output can be sold at profit on a consistent basis. † If a company does not make profit on a consistent and long-term basis, it will face financial distress and bankruptcy. Then, employees and workers will become unemployed which will affect the society negatively. For example, all the employees of banks going bankrupt in the financial crisis like Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae and Lehman Brothers were facing hardship. Hence, it is true that businesses are to a certain extent socially responsible to make profit in order to ensure job security and to create more jobs. This helps the society and improves the economy of the society. But Friedman does not consider the fact that if companies’ sole interest would be profit making, they can harm people and the surrounding environment. What if firms poison the water by disposing chemicals in rivers and sea – disposing toxic that leads to illnesses and death of animals and human beings? Friedman also fails to argue whether profit-generating actions like selling nuclear bombs to terror organizations, or knowingly manufacturing and selling defective, health-threatening products count as social responsibility as long as the company makes profit. Evidently, in the financial sector there are not activities such as producing bombs or life-threatening drugs. Even though this sector cannot produce life-threatening products, it can create a value chain of unethical and careless activities that can damage the whole world as well. One example is the Asian financial crisis in 1997 where moral hazards were mentioned as a major cause. Moral hazards are â€Å"negligent and fraudulent insureds† (Baker, 2000). It also refers to situation that tempted otherwise good people. The problem with moral hazards in the Asian financial crisis was that Asian banks thought that they would receive implicit guarantees that they would be bailed out if they encountered financial distress. Hence, these banks and companies were much more speculative in their investments and kept investing increasingly. If the investments fail, they will not have to bear the cost since it will be picked up by the government. They were playing with people’s money and did not act in the social interest of their customers. Instead, they were only focussing on making as much profit as possible. The result is known to everybody: In 1997 the nations of East Asia experienced the worst economic crisis they have never seen before. Obviously, the latest and most discussed topic on morality in the two recent years has been the culpability of shareholders and banks along with board directors for failings that led to the financial crisis of 2008. On the one hand, the crisis can be blamed on mortgage brokers, investment bankers and banks’ executives. Skewed incentives and greed contributed too much of the crisis. For example, mortgage brokers generate sub-prime mortgages but were paid regardless of the outcome. That is why they were selling unscrupulously assets with high default risk to clueless customers in order to receive high commissions. Not to mention â€Å"Wall Street Executives† who were focusing solely on how to increase their bonuses and remuneration packages. Also, Banks who took on these mortgages were accused of shoddy risk management and unethical behaviour, since they knew from the beginning that these subprime mortgages would eventually be securitized and removed from the bank’s balance sheet. Again, the originating banks got paid up front for processing the mortgages without having to retain part of the risk. Another factor is the misleading ratings of financial instruments credit agencies that were by far from independent. Arrangers of the secured assets were allowed to manipulate the creation of secured assets by mixing good assets with high risk assets to the point of getting a triple A-rating. If they did not get this rating, the assets were withdrawn, reconfigured and resubmitted. Since agencies are owned by banks, they were subjected to give best ratings to these dangerous assets and mortgage brokers knowing the risky idea behind those assets sold them to unsuspecting investors. According to Friedman, every party involved in the actions mentioned above showed â€Å"social responsibility† since they did not care about their social responsibility to the world but only about maximizing their profits. Evidently, the aftermath of the American financial crisis has shown that the social responsibility of business is definitely not only to increase their profits. If banks, brokers and lenders, accountants, the government and important financial organization did not incorrectly assessed or even ignored the magnitude of the risks mentioned above, if managers and investment bankers were not greedy and showed herd investment behavior, it can be argued that the crisis could have been prevented. But the various parties acted immorally and socially irresponsible not caring about the social consequences of their actions. Consequently, the Asian crisis of 1997 and the global financial crisis of 2008 are two memorable examples that offset Friedman’s idea. In conclusion, this paper has shown that Friedman’s request of being socially responsible by focusing solely on increasing profits is nowadays theoretically not accepted by banks and financial institutions. In contrast, in the 21st century social responsible corresponds to the alignment of business operations with social and ethical values. It is seen as the key to beat the competitor and to ensure sustainable growth. But the latest financial crisis has shown that even though CSR is part of the business culture of the large corporations, the key players in the large corporations do not practice social responsibility in a proper manner. It seems that CSR and corporate governance are a compilation of words and rules that adds only little value to the everyday businesses. Money has made everybody blind. Everybody wanted to have a piece of the big cake leading them to lower their inhibition threshold. The â€Å"social responsibility† of businesses should not be increasing profit but focusing on what it really means in practice to encourage stewardship. As a matter of fact, banks and financial institutions first need to show social and ethical manner in order to prevent another disaster like the financial crisis of 2008. All in all, businesses need to focus on environmental and social issues in the arena of corporate responsibility since the society expects and demands responsibility of organizations. In fact, the law expects it as well. Banks and financial institutions are challenged after the aftermath of the financial crisis – they have to find a way how to act in the best interest of stakeholders, society, the government and the environment, still being able to make sustainable profit. It is now a request from the society. ? References Baker, T. (2000). Insuring Morality.Business Dictionary. Definition of business. Homepage: http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/business. html [1. 2. 2010]. Feldman, G. (2007). Putting Uncle Milton Friedman To Bed: Reexamining Milton Friedman’s Essay on the Social Responsibility of Business. Labor Studies Journal (32), 125-141. Jensen, M. C. (2002). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2002 (12), 404-437. Milton Friedman, a giant among economist. The Economist. Verfugbar unter: http://www. economist. com/business/displaystory. cfm? story_id=8313925 [28. 1. 2010]. Mulligan, T. (1986). A Critique of Milton Friedman’s Essay â€Å"The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits†. Journal of Business Ethics (5), 265-269. Munstermann, T. (2007). Corporate Social Responsibility: Gabler. Skypala, P. (2008, 17. November). Time to reward good corporate governance. Financial Times, S. 6. [28. 1. 2010]. Wilcke, R. W. (2004). An Appropriate Ethical Model for Business and a Critique of Milton Friedman’s Thesis. The Independent Review (2), 187-209.

Characters and Symbolism in Cabaret essays

Characters and Symbolism in Cabaret essays Cabaret shows an interesting and tragic way that society can pay for an individuals escape from reality. The characters from the film demonstrate to the viewer how the people of Berlin suffer greatly from their attempt to escape reality. For through their own disillusions they allow the Nazi regime to come into power. As a consequence of this, society pays a price through suffering through the turmoil of the rule of the Nazi party. Sally Bowles is both an interesting and complex character. Her continuous illusion of wanting to be a big movie star demonstrates to the audience that she attempts to escape reality on a regular basis. Sally is so wrapped up in her own world that nothing seems to affect her. A key scene demonstrating this is when Maxs limo drives pass the Nazi bashing in the street. Bob Fosse has enhanced this seen by using freeze framing to give it a more dramatic effect and also create resent towards the Nazis. This seen also provides the viewer with an insight on Sallys unawareness of the outside world by showing her interrupting Maxs and Brians conversation, by saying Hey Max, can we go to the Bristol Bar...Im dying to show off my new fur coat. Whether Sally is just trying to be insular or ignore the facts it is clear that she is attempting to escape from reality. Sally distances herself from the problems of society through out the film. At the end this is made clear by her singing Life is a Cabaret to a packed audience of Nazis, without commenting or noticing. Clearly Sally is living the life of the Cabaret, constantly making her life to be something its not. She proclaims her father to be practically an ambassador when in reality the real truth is that he just doesnt care. Nothing affects her state of mind because she is constantly living in this dream world were a movie producer will whisk her...

Freedom Writers Essays

Freedom Writers Essays Freedom Writers Essay Freedom Writers Essay The Freedom writers Diary which was a amazing true story for it shows strength, courage, and achievements in the face of adversity. This remarkable true story starts in the fall of 1994, in class room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. Erin Gruwell first time teacher faced her first group of students, told to be â€Å"unteachable and at risk† teens by the administration. Erin’s class room diverse mix of African-American, Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Caucasian students, whom many of had grown up in poverty, rough neighborhoods in Long Beach fighting their own war’s in gang violence, mental and physical abuse and reactions to Erin and her unconventional teaching methods realizing that education is what they need to succeed in their lives. In the Freedom writers Erin Gruwell finds out that her students are being confronted with gang violence living in Long Beach within their communities in danger of facing death every-day. It’s like they are living their lives in a battlefield outside of school, where death is very real. â€Å"At 16, I’ve probably witnessed more dead bodies than a mortician,† says a Woodrow Wilson High student of Erin Gruwell, before describing a life of gang wars which is a everyday occurrence. This violence is do too racism and because gangsters enter into other gang members territories to cause chaos. One of the students in freedom writers states that, because of all the crime in their neighborhoods â€Å"I’ve lost many friends, friends who died in an undeclared war† Due to all this violence happening around them the freedom writers are always in the lookout in an out of school trying to survive another day. For some students joining gangs is bad but their only option as some might not have family to look after them, but this causes a problem as it affects the way people see education by ruining their concentration. : Individuals have different ways of learning, perceiving information, and retaining classroom material. A teacher must be patient for some students learn and respond more slowly than others. Mrs. Gruwell also helped her students alter their locus of control. An external locus of control involves the individual attributing their success or failure to external factors. In the film, Mrs. Gruwell’s students blamed society for their failures. When the students claimed no one cared if they succeeded or not, Mrs. Gruwell showed them that she cared and inspired them to apply themselves. Stereotypes are absolute statements applied to all members of a group, suggesting that members of a group have a fixed, often inherited set of characteristics† (Sadker Zittleman 34). The students in the film fit the stereotype that exist in society today of low socioeconomic children. The other teachers in the film believed in these stereotypes, having no hope for these students because they truly believed they could not be helped. Stereotypes are a very unfortunate part of education that teachers should fight to change. Observing a classroom really allows one to see the role of teaching first hand. I saw many educational concepts in the classroom that I had learned about in the text and saw in the film. The classroom I have been observing is full of diverse students of all ethnicities, learning styles, races, genders, and economic statuses. I found that it was interesting these same concepts were found in the elementary school I observe and in the high school in the film. Mrs. Gruwell’s diverse students were majorly being affected by racism and diversity separation. In the beginning, cliques of race, gangs, separated the students. The Asians sat with other Asians, African American’s with other African American’s, Hispanics with other Hispanics and etc. A clear racial divide was evident among the classroom. Mrs. Gruwell put an end to this by giving the student’s something to relate to. Learning about the Holocaust made the student’s realize the negative effects racism and stereotypes can have. As a result, the classroom united and no one saw the color of his or her classmates skin anymore. As inspiring as this was, these issues remain to be a problem in society. Mrs.  Gruwell demonstrated the Cultural difference theory by mediating the cultural gap separating the cultural differences of the students and the school. I have realized the power and influence of a teacher’s attitude on their classroom. Mrs. Gruwell followed the expectation theory, holding high standards and expectations for her students despite their racial and ethnic groups, and therefore had a profound impact on the students. The other teachers in the film held little expectations for these students and therefore, as Mrs. Gruwell stated, â€Å"could not teach them if they didn’t even like them. Believing in your students and holding high expectations for them will help them believe in themselves and want to improve their academic achievement. Almost ten percent of students enrolled in public schools across America are English language learners. Learning how to teach these learners effectively can be very difficult. In the film, Mrs. Gruwell’s diary assignment helps one of her bilingual students work on his English. In the classroom that I am observing, the student from Haiti, who speaks little English, is also helped in many ways in the classroom. I admired the other students who worked with him trying to help him understand directions through hand signals and gestures. The teacher also happens to know enough Spanish to help him with instructions and learning material. I realize how hard it is for him to keep up with the other students, but despite the difficulty he really shows a desire to understand. The teacher also informed me that the school offers him an after school program assisting him additional instruction in reading and writing in English. The text refers to multicultural education as â€Å"expanding the curriculum to reflect America’s diversity, using teaching strategies that are responsive to different learning styles, ensuring and supporting multicultural competence of teachers, comfortable and knowledgeable working with students and families of different cultures; and a commitment to social justice. † Mrs. Gruwell displayed all of these dimensions and serves as a role model for multicultural education. We have discussed this issue many times in class and I have come to realize how important this concept is. Culturally responsive teaching encourages students to be comfortable in their classroom and treat one another equally. Lastly, classroom management is one of the key concepts I have acquired through my experiences this semester. Everyday, my professor starts class exactly on time. He does not waste time preparing his lesson plan but already has it done. Having his students immediately engage in classroom discussions or lectures allows no time for students to get distracted. Allocated time, engaged time, and academic learning time are all beneficial when it comes to increasing academic learning time and student achievement. Creating fair and reasonable rules and handling misbehavior contribute to creating a well-managed classroom. In the film, Mrs. Gruwell allows her students to express their opinion as long as they are respectful. Having the students feel as though their voices are actually being heard makes them want to participate, achieve, and work cooperatively. They gain a great deal of respect for Mrs. Gruwell because of the way she has managed her classroom. I asked the teacher I observe, since she is fairly young, how she learned to manage her classroom efficiently. She informed me that it comes with experience, and that when she first started teaching she struggled with behavioral issues and academic learning time. I understood that observing a classroom and teaching a classroom are not the same. I may think I know how to well-manage my classroom, but it will be much different when I am actually managing a classroom. In class, we went over how to effectively handle behavioral issues. We did an activity where we had to show how we would handle a student’s misbehavior without disrupting the rest of the classroom. Having each one of us give a stern look actually helped me acquire a future technique I will use in my classroom. Teachers are extremely important today. They are responsible for educating the future leaders of our country, serving as role models and influencing student’s behavior, preparing students for the real world. A teacher’s dedication and passion about his or her work is illustrated through their teaching methods and student’s achievement. If a teacher strives to do whatever needs to be done in order for a student to achieve, they have an increasingly better chance of reaching the student. Using active engagement, interesting teaching methods, holding high expectations, providing equal treatment to the students, having patience, managing the classroom efficiently, and keeping the classroom attentive through questioning and discussions are all factors I believe contribute to teacher effectiveness. As mentioned before, teaching is not easy. Many people underestimate the work that goes into this profession. People say not to make one’s job their life, but sometime’s ones job is their life. Mrs.  Gruwell gave up her marriage, worked multiple jobs, and sacrificed so much for her students because she loved helping others and truly cared about her students. The reality of every teacher having this same influence on their students is highly unlikely, however it is examples such as â€Å"Freedom Writers† that show us it is possible. Through everything that I have acquired, I hope to always be passionate about teaching. This course and the experiences I have endured throughout the semester have challenged me to question whether teaching is right for me. Through it all, I know that teaching is what I am passionate about. Mrs.  Gruwell was a powerful educator that was able to change the lives of each and every one of her students in her classroom. Believing in her students, accepting their uniqueness, and refusing to let them fail encouraged them to succeed. Being there for a student who may not have anyone else can have a powerful impact on the student. For me to be able to have a positive effect on even just one student would be enough for me to know I am making a difference. Ultimately, I have become destined to be an effective teacher and help every possible student that I can to reach his or her highest academic and personal achievement.

Hurrah for the Lowly BUG

Hurrah for the Lowly BUG Hurrah for the Lowly BUG Hurrah for the Lowly BUG By Maeve Maddox When I lived in England, my colleagues quickly taught me that I must say insect (not bug) unless I specifically meant bed-bug. In the U.S., bug applies to every conceivable type of insect. Bug also does duty as both noun and verb in many contextsand not only in the U.S. NOTE: When I pick up quotations from the web, I dont edit them. Police bugged a safe house where Rosemary West stayed before she was charged with murder but she said nothing that incriminated herself, Winchester Crown Court was told yesterday. Will Bennett in The Independent (UK) I dont think surround sound headphones is a gimmick or only for the hardcore gaming i recenlty brought a pair so i can watch a full hd movvie with surround wuthout bugging the neighbours when a car blows up at 3 in the morning. Australian Forum user A bug tracking system is a software application that is designed to help quality assurance and programmers keep track of reported software bugs in their work. It may be regarded as a sort of issue tracking system. Wikipedia The most important part of reporting a bug is giving the programmer the ability to duplicate the bug on his machine. If we cannot find a bug, we cannot fix it. tech advice site Someone needs to put a bug in Coach Gs ear about this guy comment on sports blog They say the spell that he gets under From double-barrelled thunder makes his Eyes bug out like hes insane song lyrics The word bug as applied to scary insects probably derives from M.E. bugge something frightening, scarecrow, a meaning obsolete except in bugbear. The bogey-man [boogy-man in my family] is related. The words application to insects may have been influenced by an Old English word meaning beetle. Bug as a Noun bug defect in a machine may have been coined by Thomas Edison. jitterbug a swing dance of the 1930s. Also used as a verb. humbug - trick, joke, hoax. Dates from 18th century student slang and no one says it anymore. However, if youve read or seen A Christmas Carol by Dickens, you know the word. Bug as a Verb The verb to bug, equip with a concealed recording device entered the language as long ago as 1919. debug remove defects from a machine or software to bug meaning to annoy dates from 1949. to bug meaning to bulge dates from 1870s and may derive from a variant pronunciation of the word bulge. bug off go away! 1950s; derived from British slang bugger off, Bug as a Suffix The suffix -bug added to a word can create a noun meaning a person obsessed with Firebug, a fire-setter dates from 1841. Shutterbug, picture-taking enthusiast, 1940. litterbug irresponsible person who drops trash anywhere first recorded 1947, but the verb littering came later, in 1960. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Classes and Types of PhrasesDisappointed + PrepositionWhat the heck are "learnings"?

Constitutional Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Constitutional Law - Essay Example In such a way, the power of government officials to harass and/or infringe upon what the founders saw as the â€Å"fundamental† and â€Å"innate† rights of mankind is severely restricted. Firstly, it must be understood that regardless of what type of economic situation the given country ascribes to, and even regardless of the particular political situation that may exist within its boundaries, the restriction of government from being able to stop and search an individual without any type of probable cause or warrant violates the very most basic forms of human rights and democratic ideals by which a free and open society is ultimately founded upon (Cady, 2012). Taking this example and present era, or the recent past, it can easily be determined that the fourth amendment the United States Constitution provides a level of protection of the individual, is/her papers, and personal effects, that many nations have not traditionally respected (Leong, 2012). Yet another reason w hy the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution can and should be considered as the most important is with respect to the fact that the prior amendments, and subsequent amendments for that matter, would make little if any sense if there was not a level of guaranteed protection for the personal facts, documents, and persons that were subject to search. What is meant by this is that the freedom of expression would necessarily be negated if any and all individuals that expressed an alternate view to whatever political party or power was in control at that time were summarily searched and harassed, the entire fabric an understanding of why the freedom of speech was important and should be appreciated would necessarily evaporate (Harr, 2012). Similarly, the right to own and bear arms would have little if any merit if any and all non-owners worsen merely harassed and searched by law enforcement officials at each and every juncture. The same can of course be applied with regards to the rights of African-Americans or women to vote, the same could be applied with regards to freedom of assembly and/or freedom of religion. In fact, each and every amendment the United States Constitution is predicated upon the belief that the United States government will not retaliate against a specific group of individuals for exercise of their rights (Robinson, 2004). By constraining the level and degree to which government and/or law enforcement officials can target and search specific subsets of individuals, this particular amendment provides a very broad level of freedom with respect to the fabric and foundations of the Republic. Finally, the fourth amendment is one of the few amendments to the United States Constitution that specifies a particular course of judicial action with regards to the way in which the rights and law of the United States must integrate with one another. Although it is true that the other amendments make necessary reference to the means by which law is utilized to protect these rights, the fourth amendment is unique due to the fact that it specifically delineates the means by which searches and seizures must take place in order to ascribe by the very laws that have been discussed and applied (Richardson, 2012). Although it is not the intention of this analysis to set the United States apart as the best country on Earth or seek to define it in glowing

A Letter of Intent for Getting a Scholarship Essay - 3

A Letter of Intent for Getting a Scholarship - Essay Example Similarly, I am very altruistic, which often seems like a weakness in this rational and materialistic world. However, all these strengths and weaknesses have made me a stable and realistic person, who can bring some change in this globe. I have finished my Associates Degree in Accounting from Madison Area Technical College in the year 2005, before which I gave birth to my second child in March 2005. However, my passion for learning did not allow me to leave a single day from school, which depicts my emotional maturity and academic ability to complete my degree with effective implementation of intellectual competence. During these years, I have been able to manage my life through effective management of my responsibilities towards family, work, and school activities. It is very imperative that an individual should set realistic goals, and my desire to involve myself in a long-learning process has resulted in my application for achieving Bachelors in Accounting Degree from your reputable educational institution. Since I know that I have a passion for learning, and implement it in all areas of life, I know this can be achieved effectively through studying from achieving my goals. Our globe is a practical world that respects people with rationale, and therefore, it is imperative that individuals should set and organize realistic goals, in order to prolong learning process and achieve the required goals with the effective amalgamation of intellectual competence and emotional maturity. I have fully analyzed my financial situation and necessities that I will be requiring during my life, such as college expenses, household expenses, children’s education expenses, etc. At present, my employment of forty hours per week is providing me with funding to support myself, as well as, my family.  Ã‚  

CURRENT FINANCIAL CONDITIONS & THE INDUSTRIES Essay

CURRENT FINANCIAL CONDITIONS & THE INDUSTRIES - Essay Example The world leader, who dominated the world at that time, was USA (Still Dominating) had a very strong economy and currency. The global financial crisis crunch came on screen in September 2008, when a number of American giant financial institutions failed to sustain or merge with some other institutions mainly due to not meeting the regulatory requirements or inability to comply with them pertinently. Due to the dominating power and instinct of USA, the country must leave a positive or negative impact on the world economy whenever the country's economy plunges or hike, because the country provides a platform to most of the countries to indulge in exports and imports with each other. American economy mainly emphasizes on credit as even, about every household borrow money for homes and loans frequently. Government of USA didn't apply any limit on the credit cards of the banks which is the main reason the current credit crunch hit them badly. The failure of the major financial institutions like Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley and the mortgaging companies like Fannie Mae and Fredric Mac played a vital role to push the United States of America towards the brink of default. The severe crisis in USA left a very bad impact on the economy of the world as a whole and after the plunging of the USA's economy, the economy of every country envisaged a deeper recession. Impact of Financial Crisis on United Kingdom and Current Financial Health: United Kingdom (U.K) is one of the countries which are badly hurt by the current financial turmoil which is the 2nd worst after the 1930's great depression. The estimated gross domestic product of Britain is 1.275 trillion which is 0.63% higher as compared to the last year but the main concern for the country is its deteriorating currency value because the sterling has collapsed against major global currencies by 30%. The economy of UK is in great recession, the said argument can be observed from the current forecast by International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the economy of United Kingdom. The IMF has revised its GDP growth for UK FY 2009 -1.5% to -2.8%. The largest industry in Britain is the financial industries which are the main victims of the financial crisis. The financial sector of the United Kingdom slashed hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country which crosses the amount of 6 million people. A year ago finance officials thought that the British economy had become particularly resilient to shocks, but after the shrinking currency value and persistently condensing deposits in the banks, the perceptions seem to be not working for the Britain. The financial constraints mounting pressure and fear of bankruptcy still intervenes between the banks and borrowers, as the banks of UK are still reluctant to lend the money to the borrowers. The current interest rates of UK's banks are 1% but it is unable to attract the foreign investors as well as the domestic investment influences them to cut down the interest rates further to stress the investors to put their money in the banks. Recently the US did the same and cut the interest rates to 0.25% merely to attract investments. United Kingdom is one of those countries who are heavily relying

Journal ad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Journal ad - Essay Example o the importance of the journal, its outspoken authority among world economy contributors who use the journal to reach the world in various economic topics makes it a popular tool on the shelf, table and mailbox in different publication formats. Its editorial environment has a consistent theme that captures the business world as a rare spectacle worth a keen following. This journal has a consistent package of features in terms of its coverage which is mainly focused on business and economy. However, a number of topics presented in the journal are highly varied. To illustrate this point, the above advert contained in the Wall Street Journal aims at reaching the properties market for possible buyers of the property named therein. Property market is a discrete segment with a highly competitive environment, perhaps making the reason why the advert features in a leading journal in the US and world market. In this advert, the reader is convinced to consider buying the house with a brightened exterior, indoor pool, good floors and space at only $639,000. In the wall Street journal, there are a number of related offers worth looking at for comparison since it is a competitive platform. It is a good investment by the owners since it has captured the market in a significant way across the globe. Cheema, Sushil â€Å"House of the Day: Massachusetts Colonial Holliston, MA† Wall Street Journal, 9 July 2011. Web. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904537404576554651535585940.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LEADTopNews (accessed 8 September

How technology affects my life everyday Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

How technology affects my life everyday - Essay Example They have improved efficiency leading to increased productivity. Simultaneously, it has motivated people to be innovative in their application of technology, especially in education so that it can reach to still larger number of learners. Technology has become intrinsic part of contemporary society and therefore it becomes very difficult to envisage life without it. In case of emergencies like accident, mobile phones greatly facilitate in informing others about it and get timely help which would otherwise have become quite impossible. Another area is transport. Technology has considerably impacted transport system and made it easy for people to travel from one place to another. Regional and national boundaries have diminished and people can traverse great distance at very short time. In the absence of use of technology in transport system, development of societies and nations would have just remained a dream and not a reality. (words: 258)

Business Policy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business Policy - Case Study Example ort tries to identify the challenging environment that the company is facing in its operating environment in the recent months, along with that it gives an outline about the future strategic directions that the company might pursue. The report is based on three principal issues -1) The External Environment Analysis, 2) The Internal Capability Analysis, 3) Recommendation and Conclusion. According to the International Air Transport Association, the industry lost up to $8 billion in 2008 which is even greater than what was forecasted previously. The report uses a PESTEL analysis (See PESTEL Analysis: Appendix D) to scan the external environmental structure of the company. The business cycle of British Airways includes several parameters. This is due to the fact that airline industry is characterized by longer business cycle resulting from the lower profitability and for the lower shareholder returns. (Liehr, Nd, page 1). The marketing environment is constantly changing and with every change in the last few years airlines industry is being affected. The demand for the airline industry is highly income elastic. (â€Å"An analysis of British Airways Marketing Environment†, 2008) Thus the rise in the fuel prices last year and recent economic turmoil has affected the airlines industry in huge way as the passengers are avoiding more expensive air travels. According to a report by Air Transport association of America, the revenue generated from passenger travels for all airlines fell by 19 % during the month of February, 2009 when compared to February 2008. This is the forth consecutive month where loss is being recorded. The business sector, hit badly by the economic crisis are cutting back on their airline trips. British airways having ten flights operating daily between London and New York is among the worst hit. (â€Å"Lucrative Business class air travel hit by crisis†, 2009) The company saw a decline in 8.6 percent in premium traffic and 4.1 percent in non premium.

How technology affects my life everyday Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

How technology affects my life everyday - Essay Example They have improved efficiency leading to increased productivity. Simultaneously, it has motivated people to be innovative in their application of technology, especially in education so that it can reach to still larger number of learners. Technology has become intrinsic part of contemporary society and therefore it becomes very difficult to envisage life without it. In case of emergencies like accident, mobile phones greatly facilitate in informing others about it and get timely help which would otherwise have become quite impossible. Another area is transport. Technology has considerably impacted transport system and made it easy for people to travel from one place to another. Regional and national boundaries have diminished and people can traverse great distance at very short time. In the absence of use of technology in transport system, development of societies and nations would have just remained a dream and not a reality. (words: 258)

Theme of discovery in the Murder, The Dead and Clay Essay Example for Free

Theme of discovery in the Murder, The Dead and Clay Essay In the three short stories, you can see how all of the characters are discover their destiny, and become self-aware of their condition. In the Dead this is extremely obvious, as Gabriel (the main character), after misreading several signals that were supposed to warn him about the mood his wife was in, realises that he actually does not understand the person he had married, and that he had been fooling himself both intellectually and emotionally. By trying to escape from that paralysis that affected all of Ireland, as the excess of patriotism symbolised by Miss Ivors would prevent him from taking advantage of what the continent offers, he also prevented himself from learning about what he already had. He does not understand his wife, and he never really manages to escape from Irelands influence anyway, what becomes obvious when seeing his reaction towards Miss Ivors accusation. All of these things allow him to realise that, as he will never free himself, he might as well accept his destiny, by starting his journey towards westward. His paralysis now will be complete, what is symbolised by the snow, which falls all over Ireland. In the Clay, another James Joyce story, Maria (the main character) also discovers their destiny and what that predestined condition entitles. It also involves paralysis and the impossibility of breaking that cycle. This time though it is symbolised by the clay she founds in the saucer that was supposed to tell her what destiny awaited her, and, after a second try, a prayer book. I believe that the clay means that she has nothing to expect from the future, nor travel nor marriage. She has no liberty and no chance to develop. Besides, she is obviously not used to be treated nicely because, although she has a great heart, she also has this witch-like appearance, what drives men away. Her reaction when her friends are teasing her, or when a gentleman is nice to her in the bus, shows how much she really wants to really get married. The clay also symbolises death and the prayer book that religion will probably be involved, maybe a convent, before this end finally arrives. That is why her friends get annoyed at the joke made by the pair of girls, because they also realise this. Her song at the end, which is encircled by a dreamy mood, proves that she is not ignorant of her position either. It is also a vicious, unbreakable circle the one that traps and paralyses the actions of the protagonists of The Murder. It is the one caused by cultural differences and the fact that they live in an enclosed society, what limits their individual freedom. Their existence is confined both intellectually and emotionally, and there is also a limit to how much their perspective develops. From the moment that Jelkas father tells Jim that she will not respect him if he does not hit her, and he ignores this advice, she is bound to betray him. This is because this limit in their personal development does not allow her to realise what a life outside her cultural context has to offer. It defines her, it traps her into a defined pattern, one she cannot escape even by marrying outside it and Jim does not understand this. That is why he feels so frustrated inside his marriage, and seeks for outside company. His own background, so simple, is what blinds him from the way of reaching her heart and become a real couple. Is also that difference he cannot accept, as from the beginning we can notice that he is prejudiced against her family what proves how simple his background is, one that does not accept things to be different, that seeks continuity. There is also an element of island mentality that characterises the three stories. Everything is isolated and therefore you do not have as a wide perspective of things as you could. In The dead is a literal island, Ireland. I believe that in Clay, although it also occurs in Dublin, Joyce is actually means to create an isolated circle of people that she knows and places than she visits. These define more her world, as she knows nothing else. In The Murder the kind of rural and isolated society they live in is also quite isolated from external influence, and it revolves solely on the happenings of the towns and farms. People do not know or care of the world outside that small community. In addition to this, we have the element of learning, which is also a common factor in all of the stories, and it is innate in the term discovery. In The Dead is Gabriel the one who learns that he knows nothing, the one who comes to understand that he does not know the woman he married. Yet, I believe that this understanding and this acceptance of his position, which I mentioned earlier is actually pushing him backwards. He tried to move forward, he could not, but it was too difficult to stay in the middle, and intellectually is suffering a regression. In Clay Maria learns her limitations and learns to live with her dreams while, in the Murder is actually the reader who learns something, as the characters cannot do so as they are trapped in that never ending vicious circle that their upbringings and their condition forced them to enter.

An Analysis Of Fractional Distillation

An Analysis Of Fractional Distillation Describe, with the help of a diagram, how the different hydrocarbon fractions in crude oil are separated by fractional distillation. Identify the main fractions by name and according to the approximate number of carbon atoms in the molecules. In the world today the primary source of fuel for most of our needs come from fossil fuels. These are in the form of coal, natural gas and crude oil. In the petrochemical industry the crude oil is refined through a process of fractional distillation. This breaks apart the larger hydrocarbons into their smaller fractions at varying temperatures in the distillation tower. The heavier fractions containing the most carbon atoms are drawn off at the highest temperatures and the lighter the hydrocarbons the lower the temperature needs to be to draw off the fraction. The process of fractional distillation provides the following groups of products: 1. Liquid petroleum gas 2. Naphtha 3. Gasoline 4. Kerosene 5. Diesel oil 6. Lubricating oils 7. Fuel oils 8. Residues 8. Residues Furnace Liquid petroleum gas id the lightest fraction and is drawn off as a gas from the top of the distillation tower. It contains between 1 and 5 carbon atoms. It is the lightest fraction and is not very dense, because of this it can be drawn off at a temperature of 20 °C. It is used as an alternative to petrol in cars following a conversion. FurnaceNaphtha is a fraction that contains between 5 and 9 carbon atoms, with this increase in carbon atoms the density and boiling points increase. This means that the fraction will come off at a higher temperature of 70 °C. This fraction can be further broken down in the process of thermal cracking to produce ethylene and benzene which are important in the plastics and pharmaceutical industry. Gasoline contains between 5 and 10 carbon atoms and is drawn of at a temperature of 120 °C. This is the lightest fraction of the liquid grade fuels that are commonly used. It is what we know as petrol and widely used in cars and small 2 stroke engines. Kerosene contains between 10 and 16 carbon atoms and is drawn off at a temperature of 170 °C. This is the principal fuel in the aviation industry where it is graded further depending on the final use. It is widely used for powering gas turbines and other internal combustion engines in propeller driven aircraft. The use of kerosene to fuel aircraft is because it must have a high specific enthalpy of combustion per gram as this will release a lot of energy when it burns this means it will also have a high enthalpy density. This is important as the fuel must be stored. A less dense fuel will use more space and provide less energy for the space it takes up on the aircraft. Diesel oils are drawn off at a temperature of 270 °C and contain between 14 and 20 carbon atoms. This is very similar to kerosene and has a similar consistency with the increase in viscosity and increase in boiling point it become necessary to keep the fuel warm in cold environments as the fuel becomes thick and refuses to flow through fuel systems, this problem if needed can be solved by lighting a fire under the fuel tank to bring the fuel up to temperature and enable it to flow. Also as this fuel is not dissimilar to kerosene some gas turbines like the Rolls Royce Pegasus 11-61 turbofan will operate with no appreciable loss of power or function. Lubricating oils come off at a temperature of between 300 and 375 °C and contain 20 to 50 carbon atoms. This high content of carbon atoms gives the lubricating oils their high viscosity and high melting point making them ideal for this use. Fuel oil is the heaviest of the fractions to come of other than the residue and is drawn off at a temperature of 600 °C and has between 20 and 70 carbon atoms, this is a very heavy thick fuel which often requires pre heating before use in the fuel system. The main uses for this fuel are for large diesel engines in ships trains and factories. It is also used as a reserve supply for power stations at peak demand when gas supplies are limited. This fraction is also used to quench the residue in the process of thermal cracking to produce heavy fuel oil. This is also known as bunker oil, the lowest grade of fuel oil for use in the shipping industry as a cheaper alternative to fuel oil. The residue from the distillation process is drawn off from the bottom of the distillation tower and contains a high number of carbon atoms >70 this carbon rich mixture is washed in fuel oil in the steam cracking process to make heavy fuel oil. This process leaves the residue coke. The raw residues are used in the manufacture of asphalts for road surfacing and bitumens for sealing roofing materials that also may be made from this residue sold as roofing felts. b. Why might fractional distillation be carried out under reduced pressure? Fractional distillation is carried out under reduced pressure because when the pressure of the substance is reduced the intermolecular forces between the molecules become weaker. These molecules are then able to escape as vapour more rapidly and means that the process of fractional distillation can take place at a lower temperature which both reduces the energy needed and ultimately cost. c. Some heavier fractions are processed using cracking. Explain what is meant by cracking and why it is carried out. The term cracking is used to refer to the breaking of larger hydrocarbons into smaller constituent parts to produce the smaller and more useful alkanes and an alkene and to further process the residues from fractional distillation. This can be done in several ways, and can be split into thermal cracking and catalytic cracking. Both of these processes are used in the petrochemical industry to process some of the heavier fractions of crude oil further into gasoline and other useful products the lighter fractions of naphtha and butane are also processed into compounds of ethylene and benzene for use in the pharmaceutical and plastics industry The demands of consumers for large amounts of gasoline for cars means that over 50% of the crude oil has to be turned into gasoline to meet demand and as this fraction only forms 30-40% of crude oil the demand has to be met by way of other processs . d. Distinguish between thermal cracking and catalytic cracking. Give examples of products formed by each method. Thermal cracking of hydrocarbons is done in 3 ways. steam, vis breaking and coking. In these processes the hydrocarbons are heated to a high temperature until they break into there component parts. Steam cracking is where the hydrocarbons are briefly heated with high temperature steam to 816  °C Ethane and Naphtha produce light alkenes such as ethylene and propylene the heavier naphthas are cracked into gasoline. Benzene comes off at the higher temperature of around 1000 °C and is an important molecule in the pharmaceuticals industry. Ethylene is used in the manufacture of plastics Vis breaking is carried out to process the residues from the distillation process. This is done by heating the residue to 482 °C and then quenching it with fuel oil. This then poured down a distillation tower and then flashed without oxygen. This flashing of the residue produces the product heavy fuel oil and tar. Coke is the final residue from the process of steam cracking and is deposited on the sides of the furnace which is then periodically cleaned off in the process of decoking the furnace. This coke is then sold on for use in industry as a fuel. Fluid catalytic cracking is the most important process of converting the fractions of crude oil into the more valuable gasoline, olefinic and other products. This process has largely replaced the thermal cracking process as it yields a higher return of gasoline with a higher octane rating. This process of fluid catalytic cracking runs as a continuous process in the refinery without interruption 24 hours a day for a number of years without before routine maintenance. The modern fluid catalytic cracking is a complex process in which the recycled fractions are injected into a riser with a high boiling point stock which is at a temperature between 315 °C and 430 °C and a pressure of 1.72barg. This vaporises the larger hydrocarbons and on contact with the catalyst it cracks them into smaller hydrocarbons. The catalyst that is used in the process is then cleaned of the hydrocarbon deposits and then recycled back through a regenerator. This is done by blowing air into the regenerator an d burning off the coke deposits. This regenerator operates at a temperature of 715 °C. The burning off of the coke from the catalyst is exothermic a heats it up. This recycled catalyst is then returned to the process and provides the heat to vaporise the stock and residue mixture and provide the energy for the endothermic cracking reaction. This process is dependant on both the physical and chemical properties of the catalyst. There are four main components to the modern catalyst in the FCC. These are crystalline zeolite, matrix, binder and filler. The zeolite is the main provider of catalytic activity. The matrix contains amorpous alumina which also provides some catalyst activity within the sites of large pores. This enables the cracking of larger hydrocarbons than the zeolite alone. The binders and fillers of the catalyst provide the physical strength and maintain its integrity. Contaminants in the stock from metals all have a detrimental effect on the catalyst which can be mit igated in some way by avoiding stock with contaminant, fresh catalyst, demetalisation though this is expensive, and by adding other metals to form compounds that are less troublesome to the catalyst. e. Write a possible equation for the cracking of dodecane, C12H26. Heat + CH3(CH2)10CH3 CH3(CH2)4CH3 +H2C=CH(CH2)3CH3 Dodecane _ hexane 1-hexane. The thermal cracking of the dodecane is exothermic and the heat that is used in the process is largely taken up by the catalyst in an endothermic reaction. This heat energy is then partly recovered in the re use of the catalyst up until the point it requires cleaning or replacing. 2 a.(i) Define what is meant by a catalyst. A catalyst is a substance that alters the rate of a chemical reaction without being changed chemically or consumed in the reaction. They can however change physically. Catalysis is the process of increasing or decreasing the rate of a reaction. These can be both positive and negative. The catalysts that speed up reaction are called positive catalysts and ones that slow down reactions are called inhibitors. There are also substances that increase the activity of the catalysts which are called promotors; the substances that deactivate the catalysts are called catalytic poisons. The use of catalysts is a means of making the process viable if it would not happen without it and also as a means of making the process cost efficient in terms of energy use and cost. The ability of the catalyst to be reused in most cases reduces the cost further. a.(ii) How do catalysts work? During chemical reactions the addition of a catalyst will increase the rate of the reaction at a lower energy level than the reaction without an addition of a catalyst. The combination of product and catalyst reactants raises it above the activation barrier and raises the potential energy of the reactant molecules as they come together. The energy of the activated complex reaches its maximum and form an activated complex, this activation energy then falls and the product forms and the molecules of the catalyst and product separate. This means the catalyst can be recovered from the product and used again following some reprocessing in some instances. The use of catalysts can be for both cost saving and also as some reactions may take a long time or not even be possible without the addition of a catalyst. b. Why is it important that catalytic converters start working at as low a temperature as possible? It is important for the catalyst converter to work at as lower temperature as possible as reaction rates are almost always increased when the temperature rises. This is because as the temperature increases so do collision rates of the molecules between the catalyst and exhaust gases. To ensure that the rich mix of gases emitted by a cool engine is converted fully at low temperatures it is necessary for the catalyst to be active at a low temperature. This also means as the temperature increases the reaction rate will increase too. c. Why do you think the catalytic converter is sited close to the engine? The catalytic converter is sited close to the engine to ensure that the exhaust gases are as hot as possible before entering the converter. By keeping the gases hot it will increase the catalysis rate due to the molecules being more active as the temperature is increased. d. Why are harmful emissions on short car journeys or in cold weather particularly high? Short journeys will not raise the temperature of the engine block or manifold assembly, this leads to the hot combustion gases being cooled in the short journey to the converter. Operating in low temperatures will also cool the manifold assembly on a continuous basis as cold air passes the manifold leading to the cooling of the exhaust gases If the temperature is consistently cold the injectors or carburettors can be retuned to burn a leaner mix which raises the burn temperature in the cylinder and reduce the emission of un burnt fuel and rich exhaust gases into the catalytic converter. The burning of a lean mix at normal temperature will raise the cylinder temperature and cause pitting on the piston head and possible damage to the cylinder which in time will cause oil to pass into the cylinder producing soot and partially burnt oil into the exhaust system. e. Explain what is meant by poisoning a catalyst? The catalyst converter can be poisoned by containments in fuel and by burning the wrong type. This leads to the coating of the catalyst with contaminants like lead from leaded fuels and manganese which is used as additive to gasoline. Gasket failure in the cylinder head will lead to oil and coolant entering the cylinder and being ejected out in the exhaust gases. Depositing partially burnt oil and silicon from the coolant in the converter. This reduces the contact between the catalyst and exhaust gases. Some of this reversible over time but the catalytic converter will be less effective in the mean time and may never fully recover its full working capacity. f. What is done to the catalyst metals to increase their efficiency? The catalytic converter is made of several components witch all have important roles to play in the functioning of the catalytic converter. The core or substrate in modern catalytic converters is made up of a ceramic honeycomb or a stainless steel foil. This is so that it doesnt react with the catalyst and also providing an extremely large surface area to support the washcoat. This washcoat is to make the converter more efficient and is often a mixture of silica and alumina. This provides a rough surface area on the substrate which greatly increases the surface area compared to the honeycomb structure alone. The catalyst and washcoat are mixed and then added to the substrate. This catalyst is made up of precious metals such as platinum which is the most widely used metal as it is the most active catalyst but not necessarily suitable in all situations. There are several different metals used as catalysts as some are more suitable than others in certain circumstances. To reduce the cos t and reduce unwanted reactions palladium and rhodium are also used. Platinum and rhodium are used as a reduction catalyst; platinum and palladium are used as an oxidising catalyst. There are several other metals used in catalytic converters though their uses have limitations and legislation also prevents use in certain countries due to the toxicity of the substances they produce. g. What is meant by homogeneous catalysis? Is the catalysis taking place in a catalytic converter a good example of homogeneous catalysis? Discuss. Homogeneous catalysis is when the catalyst is in the same phase as the reactants and product. The homogeneous catalysts are more selective for a single product, more active and easily modified for optimising selectivity. Though these catalysts are more prone to permanent deactivation and are difficult to separate from the product so the catalytic converter is not a good example of a homogeneous catalyst. The catalytic converter in the exhaust system of a car is a heterogeneous catalyst as the catalyst product and reactant are not in the same phase. As the metals are coated onto a ceramic honeycomb surface the gases from the engine must diffuse to the catalyst surface and absorb onto it. This is why the catalyst needs to be coated thinly onto the honeycomb structure to increase the chance of the molecules coming into contact with the catalyst. The 3 main reactions that take place in the converter are as follows. 2CO(g) + O2(g) → 2CO2(g) 2NO(g) + 2CO(g) → N2(g) + 2CO2(g) 2C6H6(g) + 15O2  Ã¢â€ â€™ 12CO2(g) +6H2O(l) h. Suggest a reason why the catalytic converter has to be replaced eventually. The catalytic converter will eventually have to be replaced as the physical structure and catalyst will become worn out and polluted by contaminants. This will reduce the capability of gases to be converted as there will be less contact both from soiling and reduced surface area due to physical and chemical degradation of both the substrate and the catalyst. As this catalyst is coated onto the substrate in the manufacturing process it is not possible to reuse the catalyst and a new one will be required. i. Catalytic converters convert the pollutant gases carbon monoxide, C7H16 and nitrogen monoxide into harmless gases. However, this is still only a partial solution to the emission problem. Explain why. Even though the catalytic converter converts the more harmful gases into carbon dioxide, nitrogen gas and waters it is only a partial solution to the problem of huge amounts of waste gases being emitted into the atmosphere? This is because the carbon dioxide and nitrogen gases are both pollutants that both contribute to the problem of global warming and in the case of CO2 a contributor to the acidification of the oceans. This latter problem could have far reaching consequences in relation to marine life for which 2 billion people rely upon for protein and the associated industries that harvest the sea for commercial gain. j. An. oxygen sensor monitors the oxygen flowing through the exhaust system and feeds back to control the fuel-air mixture entering the engine. Why do you think too little oxygen flowing over the catalyst would be a bad thing? Why do you think too much oxygen flowing over the catalyst might be a bad thing? The sensor in modern cars monitors the oxygen that flows through the catalytic converter. This provides the information for the engine management system to feed oxygen into the exhaust gases when insufficient oxygen is present from either cold starting or fuel rich gases being emitted this ensures the catalyst can completely react and convert the gases. If there is insufficient oxygen the gases will not be completely converted leading to the emissions of the more harmful gases. The presence of too much oxygen will cause an increase in temperature and also oxidisation of the catalyst which will cause degradation from heat or corrosion. k. It has been suggested that battery-powered cars, which do not emit pollutants, are a solution to the problems of environmental pollution. What effect would the increased use of battery-powered cars have on the demand for electricity? What would be the consequences for the environment of this demand? The global car count to date is approximately 600 million and is expected to double in the next 30 years to a huge 1.2 billion cars. This is clearly going to cause problems both for the demand of fuel to build and power them and also in the pollutants they emit. The use of gasoline and diesel oils to fuel this demand is eventually going to rapidly deplete world reserves at an ever increasing rate. This will happen even if car numbers stayed at todays level as extraction is almost at its peak level. The current theories on how much is left is a secret closely guarded by opec and the oil rich nations like Saudi Arabia who for the last 30 years have never changed the forecast for the reserves they hold. This is clearly untrue, and in the future will cause a sudden collapse of the availability of oil. It has been suggested that electric powered cars could be a solution to the problems of both pollution and consumption of one of the most valuable resources mankind has. As a solution is th is possible? There are a number of factors to take into account. Cost of replacing 600-1 billion cars in both raw materials and energy to make them and scrap the old one. Increase in the demand for electricity and can this demand be met without a net increase in global emissions from power stations without burning huge amounts of carbon fuels. Will the electric car be able to meet the demands of the travel hungry consumers? Is there the global political will to address the issue? Resistance of the world population to change there ways, this is important as all the thinking in the world is of no use if nobody will do anything. On the cost of replacing 600-1.2 billion cars, it is going to cost a huge amount of money, approximately 12 trillion pounds for the new ones and 3 trillion for scrapping the old ones. This is a total of  £15 trillion. An estimate on the total amount of dollars in the world is 908 billion in use as of 2009 (source: Federal Reserve). In addition to this there is $1,655.6 billion in current accounts, $8,326.8 billion in savings and approximately $10 trillion in bank deposit certificate and stocks. As this latter one is money that is not freely available it could be said there is approximately $8.3 trillion of accessible cash. This is a huge amount of money, far short of the money needed to replace the global car collection. Although this is not all the money in the world it is a considerable amount of it and can be taken as a fair marker of how difficult it is going to be to fund the change. Although the electric powered car is efficient at approximately 40% compared to gasoline at15%. Could the demand be met from the electric industry without increasing emissions? The answer to this is yes at a cost. global electricity production annually is 13.7 trillion watts. The requirements on demand if we were all to go electric would be approximately 60.44 billion watts though the annual cost of charging the cars up would be cheap compared to the use of gasoline. There needs to be a global political will to change and this may not come until problems from global warming have started to have an economic effect Last of all will the people of the world do the right thing for the good of the planet and make the change, it would be nice to think they would but this will be the most difficult challenge of them all as most people are not keen on a change.